interiority - 6th week tuesday

Today we reflect on the Book of Genesis, our first reading today and we have already reached that point in our reading when God created human beings.  If you notice it was a different way of creating.  In creating the moon and the stars and the animals and the trees God said, Let there be, and these things were created.  But when God created the human person he said, let us create.  God used what we refer to in English grammar as the royal we.  God is one and yet God used we, the royal we – because it is a different task unlike the other creation, it is a solemn task, it is the peak, the culmination of God’s most marvelous work.  Remember, this marvelous work of creation will be surpassed only by God’s marvelous work of redemption in Jesus.

So why is this creation different from other creation?  Because the human person is made in the image and likeness of God.  To be made in God’s image and likeness does not mean that we physically look like God.  Kon physical ang aton resemblance damo gid sa aton indi kapasar kay man siling ni St. Augustine God is beauty ever ancient ever new.  Laban sa aton indi gid man beauty, ancient lang.  Seriously now, remember God is Spirit.  God does not have a body. 
Authors will says that being made in the image and likeness of God means that the human person possesses what we call the capacity for interiority.  The human person possesses the power to know himself in the depths of his being.  Man is capable of knowing himself, in fact man is drawn to think about his real self.  Indi lang ini capacity but the human person is actually drawn, may tendency sia nga lantawon kag husisaon ang iya matuod nga kaugalingon - kon sin-o ako, kon ano ako, kon ngaa amo ako sini?

This is illustrated profoundly by our responsorial psalm today – what is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him?  The capacity to ask this question, the desire that draws you to find answers to this question is called interiority.

Interiority defines our likeness with God.  We become like God when we have interiority.  Do we practice interiority everyday?

Do we spend time each day examining ourselves, our actions, our thoughts and intentions?  For example, when I am angry or when I speak ill of the other person do I have the courage to ask myself why am I angry with this person; what is in him that makes me angry; am I envious because he is better than I am; am I jealous because he does not give me the attention I need; does he remind me of something bad in me or something lacking in me; do I speak ill of others because I always want to look good and become the bida; do I always want to become the bida because in reality I feel bad about myself, I feel small, I feel I am not up to anything, because all my life I have been always belittled and unappreciated?   

If you notice it is called interiority because the direction of our questions is inside, it is going back to the self – not to others but to self.  If we keep on blaming people, if we keep on pointing fingers on people then we miss interiority. 

This what we call interiority.  Kon wala sang interiority wala sing capacity for holiness kag kon wala sing capacity to grow in holiness therefore wala man sing capacity to become like God.  For didn’t God say, be holy for I am holy.